An analysis of the attempts by ASEAN to cultivate a Southeast Asian identity through higher education policy

• In Event: Highlighted Session: International Organizations and their Conceptions of Educational Future

Proposal

Over the past three decades. systems of higher education in Southeast Asia have expanded rapidly, with a spectacular rise in gross enrolment ratio and research productivity. This success reflects the growing level of economic and political confidence in the region, made possible largely through the integration of the countries of Southeast Asian within the global economy, enabling them to take advantage of the global flows of capital and shifting modes of production. This paper examines the role of ASEAN as a regional organization in driving this success -especially through its collaborations with other regional and international organizations, such as the EU, UNESCO, and the World Bank. It shows the complex politics of the ways in which regional and international organizations work with each other, in ways that have the potential for isomorphism but only tentatively. The paper points to the challenges ASEAN has faced both within the region and its outreach. In the field of higher education, ASEAN has failed, for example, in promoting effective modes of regional collaboration, and in cultivating a deeper sense of regional identity, but continues to seek collaborative networks. This the paper argues is driven by a broader logic of global governance, contingent, complex, and contested, as well as a distinctive take on its aspirations for the future linked to its geopolitical challenges.

Author

• Fazal A Rizvi, University of Melbourne